Thanks. When you do guided setup do you lose your recordings? I was thinking the different providers may set different copy flags, or have some other differences that may make recordings from one location not work at the other location.

No you don't lose your recordings if you repeat GS. And once a recording is made it's keyed to the TiVo not the CableCARD so you'll be able to play them fine in either location.

However GS takes 20-30 minutes and getting a CableCARD paired can be a real PITA, so I still don't think this would be very fun to do. Although if they're only going back and forth once a year it may not be bad. If it's every other weekend it'll probably be a nightmare.

Have they considered getting DirecTV instead? I think DirecTV DVRs can be made portable so they'll work in multiple locations without having to be reset.

No. There is a discussion about this in the Roamio forum. Swapping the hard drive invalidates the pairing with the CableCARD even if you put the original drive back in.

We know this is true for the Roamio, but has this been attempted with an earlier Tivo?
From what I understand, it sounds like it would work, but only with the old ecosystem.
Has this been proven false?

Edit: BTW, even if it worked, I think it would be more trouble than its worth.

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We know this is true for the Roamio, but has this been attempted with an earlier Tivo?
From what I understand, it sounds like it would work, but only with the old ecosystem.
Has this been proven false?

Edit: BTW, even if it worked, I think it would be more trouble than its worth.

Given my experiences with CC pairing, I would much rather swap a HD and CC than try to get a CC paired over the phone.

Of course if they wanted to take their recordings with them, then this would not be a solution at all.

Would it be possible to have a hard drive set up for each location so all you would have to do is change the hard drive and CC? Is the CC pairing tied to the HD or the motherboard?

This drive swap would work with two different drives and two different CC BUT your recordings would not move with you and you would have to change drives for each move, that also somewhat PITA but not as much as running the guided setup with each move. Find a low cost TiVo on E-Bay with Lifetime, may be the simple solution.

Has anyone done this? My parents split time between homes in 2 states. The idea is, get a cable card from each provider (comcast and cox) and then just bring the tivo with when moving back and forth.

Swap the card and fire it up, no issues?
Need to call to pair?
Can't do it at all?

What say you? Thanks for the help tcf.

Can they get OTA reception at either site? If they can satellite might be the way to go. You would only need one account, just setup a dish at each location and move your satellite DVR. The down side is you might only get locals from one location (they may have an easy way to switch you location for locals so it might not even be an issue), which is why you may need OTA at one site, some of the older dual tuner satellite DVRs could also do OTA.

I'm not sure that is true. My understanding is that pairing locks the card to the box but it doesn't lock the box to the card. So you can't use the card in a different box, but you can use the box with a different card.

I agree about switching to DirecTV. You can change locations with no problems simply by taking the box with you and connecting it to the new dish. I don't know if DirecTV allows for electronic billing, but that would allow you to continue paying the monthly bills without having to deal with constant address changes. The bill shows up electronically in your bill payer account and you pay it online. Nothing ever gets sent to a street address. The only caveat is getting decent internet service every time you move.

I agree about switching to DirecTV. You can change locations with no problems simply by taking the box with you and connecting it to the new dish. I don't know if DirecTV allows for electronic billing, but that would allow you to continue paying the monthly bills without having to deal with constant address changes. The bill shows up electronically in your bill payer account and you pay it online. Nothing ever gets sent to a street address. The only caveat is getting decent internet service every time you move.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan203

Does DirecTV require any sort of location check for local channels? If so that could be the only real problem

Like I said in my post above about using satellite, getting locals in both locations might be an issue. What locals you can get are set by the stated location (zip code) of the home the satellite is setup at. With Dish they use spot beams so depending on how far away the second home was you might or might not be able to pickup the locals from your primary location at the second location.

Both companies do have electronic only billing, sell setups for RVs and have plans to allow your account and equipment to move with you if you move locations, so I am guessing it would be pretty easy to figure out how to make something like this work and they (the satellite companies) might even have ways setup for you to do this already.

I believe DirecTV also uses spot beams so you may be out of luck in that regard if you change locations. If locals are that important then you can get an OTA antenna to pick them up. I don't know if the DirecTV boxes can tune OTA channels, but the older HR10-250 DTivos could. I don't even know if DirecTV would activate them on a current account, but if they would you could pick one up cheap on ebay. They used to charge $5/month for each additional box on the account, but that may have changed since I had it.

DirecTV may have some sort of setup whereby you can switch your locals when you change locations. A lot of people go south for the winter so I wouldn't be surprised if they have some sort of arrangement for snowbirds.

Given the cost, I would just buy them a second used HD with lifetime. They were running around $300-$350 including shipping but it looks like used prices have dropped and quite a few are selling in the $250 range perhaps due to the release of the Roamio.

I do this with a series 3. Two Cablecards and Comcast in Michigan and Two Cablecards, a Tuning Adapter with Brighthouse in Florida. Just put in the cablecard when you arrive and away you go. Only issue I had was one year when Brighthouse had all kinds of problems and nothing worked. Tech said later something happend in the middle of the summer and almost all the Tivos were broken.

I do this with a series 3. Two Cablecards and Comcast in Michigan and Two Cablecards, a Tuning Adapter with Brighthouse in Florida. Just put in the cablecard when you arrive and away you go. Only issue I had was one year when Brighthouse had all kinds of problems and nothing worked. Tech said later something happend in the middle of the summer and almost all the Tivos were broken.

This will not work in (most but not all) Comcast land as the data will change on the TiVo hard drive, but if you have one hard drive for FL and one for your other home it will work.